He says he does not feel at home in the concrete building, whose unusual design adds to the Kafkaesque setting. Passengers get easily lost in the doughnut-shaped structure, where transparent tubes carry people to departure satellites.
"I don't want to stay forever, but I'm happy with it as a short-term solution. I don't feel like I'm in prison. I'm not bored. I read. I write," he said.
Merhan washes in the airport's bathrooms in the evenings when most tourists have gone. "I miss going shopping sometimes, being in a city, going to the cinema."
Merhan, who has been the subject of several documentaries and now wants to publish a book on his life, sometimes steps outside the airports' doors to get some fresh air but he never walks further than some 100 yards from his camp.
"I would like to go to Hollywood for more film projects," he says, smilingly. "But I'd charge more then, that's for sure."
He could be disappointed once he finds out Spielberg's film barely resembles his own life. Hanks' character falls in love with a stewardess played by Catherine Zeta-Jones -- Merhan says he does not have a single friend.
"Mr Nasseri's story was an inspiration for the early treatment of the film, but the film is not his story," DreamWorks said in a statement.
Although Merhan seems unsure about leaving his terminal, he has not given up dreaming. Glancing from the window behind his bench, he said: "There are many flights leaving to the US from here every day. It should be easy to get there."
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